Breeding for drought tolerance in vegetables

Abstract

Drought or moisture stress is one of the most significant environmental stresses causing huge loss to the agriculture worldwide. Vegetables are more sensitive to drought as compare to many other crops. Improving yield under drought is a major goal of plant breeding. An understanding of genetic basis of drought tolerance is a pre-requisite for plant breeders to evolve superior genotype through conventional breeding methodology. Drought is often accompanied by relatively high temperatures, which promote evapotranspiration and affects photosynthetic kinetics, thus intensifying the effects of drought and further reducing crop yields. Traditionally, plant breeders have addressed the problem of environmental stress by selecting for suitability of performance over a series of environmental conditions using extensive testing and biometrical approaches. Progress requires the introduction of traits that reduce the gap between yield potential and actual yield in drought-prone environments. An attempt has been made in this review to compile the scattered information on concepts, genetics, and traditional breeding approaches of drought tolerance with suitable illustrations. A comprehensive list of genes responsible for drought and examples of species and genotypes of vegetables with drought tolerance has also been provided.